The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs - Week 29

Here's the standings for Week 29:

1 - Seth's Blog - 5,152 (LW - 1)(+179)
2 - Duct Tape Marketing - 16,848 (LW - 2)(+466)
3 - Creating Passionate Users - 18,407 (LW - 3)(+315)
4 - Gaping Void - 18,457 (LW - 4)(+772)
5 - Marketing Shift - 29,915 (LW - 5)(+1,238)
6 - Daily Fix - 41,384 (LW - 6)(-632)
7 - Coolzor - 51,903 (LW - 7)(-389)
8 - The Viral Garden - 74,978 (LW - 9)(+608)
9 - HorsePigCow - 75,419 (LW - 8)(-4,869)
10 - New School of Network Marketing - 87,857 (LW - 12)(+8,158)
11 - Logic + Emotion - 88,598 (LW - 11)(+2,788)
12 - Converstations - 100,069 (LW - 13)(-249)
13 - Emergence Marketing - 105,036 (LW - 14)(-4,965)
14 - Brand Autopsy - 104,930 (LW - 15)(-2,591)
15 - What's Next - 105,524 (LW - 16)(+147)
16 - Church of the Customer - 113,219 (LW - 10)(-30,586)
17 - Experience Curve - 116,226 (LW - 17)(+3,122)
18 - Jaffe Juice - 128,509 (LW - 18)(+1,817)
19 - Marketing Nirvana - 182,095 (LW - 19)(+1,232)
20 - Spare Change - 196,974 (LW - 24)(+29,998)
21 - Diva Marketing - 200,490 (LW - 21)(+6,332)
22 - Pro Hip-Hip - Hip-Hop Marketing - 201,768 (LW- 20)(-1,834)
23 - Beyond Madison Avenue - 217,400 (LW - 23)(+8,865)
24 - Brains on Fire - 234,733 (LW - 22)(-22,806)
25 - Make Marketing History - 260,369 (LW - UR)


Strong week for the Top 25, as both the top and bottom was up. Marketing Shift just continues to march upward and at this rate could make a run at the Top 4 by year's end. After that, the big news was the nosedive Church of the Customer took, although my guess is that Ben and Jackie will recover their losses and then some when Citizen Marketers breaks.

After CotC, 7 of the remaining blogs were up, including a huge move for Spare Change, which is up 4 spots. And BMA has another nice move as its rebound continues.

John Dodds' Make Marketing History is the lone debut, and he's been on a winning streak for a while now.

Next update is next Wednesday.


Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing
Top 25 Marketing Blogs, Marketing Blogs

Want to know why you should be blogging?

Talk about an epiphany! A few weeks ago CK left a post asking marketing bloggers to tell her what was the single-most important point of value we received from blogging. A great post that included a multitude of wonderful comments from several of the best marketing bloggers out there.

Well as usually happens with a post with a bunch of great comments, over time it got pushed further and further into the archives where fewer readers could benefit from the wisdom it contained. Well CK found a way to fix that! She's created this wonderful PDF that collects ALL the comments to that post, in a quick and easy to read format! What a BRILLIANT idea!

And the PDF includes views from 28 of the top marketing bloggers on the internet. If any of you are wondering about what exactly there is to gain from blogging, read this list. It's coming from the people that are in this space and benefitting from it every day.

Below is a complete list of all the marketing bloggers that contributed, and I encourage everyone that did to post about this as well, as I think this is a wonderful resource for all of us!

Noah Brier
Jackie Huba
Mack Collier
Laura Ries
Paul McEnany
David Berkowitz
Eric Kintz
Lewis Green
Vaspers the Grate
David Armano
Paul Gillin
Neil Vineberg
Monica Powers
Ann Handley
David Reich
Adam Rakunas
Karl Long
Max Kalehoff
Bob Glaza
Gavin Heaton
Tim Jackson
CK
Jordan Behan
Tricia Mangan
Mario Sundar
Ryan Anderson
Ben McConnell
Greg Verdino





Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing,
CK, Blogging

It's Ann's Birthday!

Everyone give a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Daily Fix's blogging maven Ann Handley! Happy Birthday sis, and make SURE to celebrate today as you deserve it for the year you've had with taking Daily Fix from zero to the biggest marketing group blog on the internet!

As most of you know, Ann spends a TON of time helping other bloggers and building community, whether it's leaving comments everywhere, or one of the many behind-the-scenes projects she's a part of to help out the rest of us. She's incredibly giving of her time and truly represents the best of what this community can be. We are ALL better off for her numerous contributions, and I'm honored to call her 'sis' ;)

So please take a moment to give Ann a Happy Birthday wish here, or at David's post, or perhaps the best present for her would be for everyone to go leave a comment on Daily Fix ;)


PS: That's her, DA, and the Boston Globe's Maura Welch in the pic above.

Nike buys SportsCenter, gets bonus product placements

The NBA season, along with the new sneaker wars have already started, and Nike just fired a hellacious salvo.

On Wednesday night, Nike became the first advertiser ever to be the sole sponsor for ESPN's SportsCenter. For one hour, The LeBrons took over the popular sports show, showing several hilarious new ads from the fictional family that features the 'four sides of LeBron James', promoting the Nike Air Zoom LeBron IV.

The spots alone during SportsCenter would have been effective enough, but along with the buyout of the program's advertising, ESPN also ran a segment on LeBron, and invited viewers to go to ESPN.com to answer a poll question about the superstar. And, you guessed it, Nike has bought space for the campaign on ESPN.com as well.

The segment and poll question on LeBron airing during SportsCenter effectively resulted in Nike getting a pair of bonus 'product placements' for LeBron, which will translate in sales of Nike's new shoe the Nike Air Zoom LeBron IV.

But I'm wondering, is this another case of trying to blur the lines between fiction and reality, such as Sacha Baron Cohen appearing in character as Borat on Late Night With David Letterman? Could we next see 'Business LeBron'(one of the characters in The LeBrons commercials) appear on Letterman, or in the ultimate surreal moment, have Business appear in the next commercial for SportsCenter?

Either way, it's another marketing home-run for Nike, or in this case, a slam-dunk.

The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs - Week 28

Here's the standings for Week 28:

1 - Seth's Blog - 5,331 (LW - 1)(-14)
2 - Duct Tape Marketing - 17,314 (LW - 2)(+273)
3 - Creating Passionate Users - 18,722 (LW - 3)(-433)
4 - Gaping Void - 19,229 (LW - 4)(-151)
5 - Marketing Shift - 31,153 (LW - 5)(+1,733)
6 - Daily Fix - 40,752 (LW - 6)(-1,537)
7 - Coolzor - 51,514 (LW - 7)(+2,855)
8 - HorsePigCow - 70,550 (LW - 8)(-1,827)
9 - The Viral Garden - 75,586 (LW - 9)(+2,375)
10 - Church of the Customer - 82,633 (LW - 10)(-2,391)
11 - Logic + Emotion - 91,386 (LW - 11)(+3,619)
12 - New School of Network Marketing - 96,015 (LW - 12)(+1,891)
13 - Converstations - 99,820 (LW - 14)(+79)
14 - Emergence Marketing - 100,071 (LW - 13)(-702)
15 - Brand Autopsy - 102,339 (LW - 15)(+409)
16 - What's Next - 105,671 (LW - 16)(+5,157)
17 - Experience Curve - 119,348 (LW - 17)(-2,403)
18 - Jaffe Juice - 130,326 (LW - 18)(+3,085)
19 - Marketing Nirvana - 183,327 (LW - 19)(-9,787)
20 - Pro Hip-Hip - Hip-Hop Marketing - 199,934 (LW- 20)(-3,748)
21 - Diva Marketing - 206,822 (LW - 21)(+2,101)
22 - Brains on Fire - 211,927 (LW - 22)(-1,851)
23 - Beyond Madison Avenue - 226,265 (LW - 24)(+6,133)
24 - Spare Change - 226,972 (LW - 23)(-6,107)
25 - Marketallica - 263,454 (LW - 25)(-4,492)


Fairly stable week for the Top 25, as the Top 12 remains the same. Logic + Emotion again had a nice week, and again had the biggest move in the Top 12. Just for reference, there are now 4 blogs in the Top 12 that weren't a member of the first Top 25, led by Daily Fix at #6. Duct Tape is starting to grow a bit of a cushion between the #2 spot and CPU and Gaping Void.

Outside the Top 12, Jaffe Juice has another decent week. Not a huge move, but after slipping for weeks, JJ has now gained back about half its losses. What's Next also had a big week, and BMA continues its winning streak with another nice move.

No new blogs again this week, but a few are getting close to joining the party. We'll see what happens.

Next update is next Wednesday.

Viral Community News

The 'Night of the Living Comments' edition.

Here's the great blogs and posts I found when I went on my commenting spree(NOW you see why I did it ;)

Quite possibly the most awesomely prefect blog name: Get Shouty. Close second is Conformists Unite.


Gavin has started KarmaCredits.org, which he explains is:

We are drawing a line in the sand. We are daring you to join us, to raise your voice in chorus. But it is oh so much more than talk.

If you have found us here, then you will have read this post at the Daily Fix – if not please do.

Karma Credits is a site for passionate marketers. It is a space for collaboration and ideation. We are about strategy and about doing.

Also, Gavin has a post about how blogs are the new online resume. One of the earlier posts I left here was on this very subject.


I first found out about this a few days ago on Marketing Nirvana, Google has now given us the ability to create a 'custom' search engine by only selecting certain sites to be included. Here is the engine that Mario created, with many members of the Viral Community. Also, Media Landscaping has created their version, which looks to have almost every member of the Top 25 Marketing and Advertising blogs, plus a ton of other great Ad and Marketing blogs.


Kate be her name, and this be her blog.


Roger von Oech has done a great job of creating his blogging community. Roger has personally reached out to many bloggers either through their blogs or via email to say howdy, pick their brains, and as a result his blog Creative Think is off to a flying start, and he's gotten everyone talking about his Ball of Whacks. Can't wait to get mine and start playing with it! Companies and bloggers alike that are looking for pointers on how to join the blogosphere the right way and to make an immediate impact, should ask Roger for advice.


I can't even remember how I found Pat's blog Sports Marketing 2.0, but I'm glad I did. Pat is the Director of Database Marketing & E Commerce for the Indianapolis Colts, and he discusses how the Colts as well as other teams are entering the social media realm. Good stuff because its coming from the 'other side of the fence'.


The "A-Ha!" blog. Lani emailed me a few months ago with an incredibly nice email about this article I wrote for Marketing Profs, and I found the email again by accident while searching my inbox, and I guess it was fate, because I never noticed that she included her and Alan's blog address! Thanks again!


So my commenting spree was a definite success, it generated some great discussion in the 'Comments' post, and I found several great new blogs.

PS: When is YOUR commenting spree starting?

This might be significant...

Dove's 2006 Super Bowl spot generated almost 500 million impressions for Campaignforrealbeauty.com. Oprah even devoted an entire episode to the ad and the "Campaign for Real Beauty".

Then Unilver seeded one commercial on YouTube earlier this month.

Which one do you think worked better?

According to Alexa, the traffic spike Unilever enjoyed from one YouTube video going viral is OVER TRIPLE what Dove garnered from its Super Bowl spot.

Anyone wanna do the cost analysis on $3.75 million vs. free?

Night of the living comments

Gavin has a post about leaving comments, and how to encourage visitors to your blog to speak up and make a contribution. It's funny because I've been dancing around this same topic for a while, how to convert the lurkers into community members, ie, commenters.

Finally I realized that visitors will only comment if they want to, and that no one can 'make' them become involved if they don't want to be. Then I got to thinking, maybe I'm looking at this from a 'what can you do for me' angle, instead of 'what can I do for you?'. Maybe the best way to get more people to comment on my blog is to first comment on their blog? Doesn't make much sense when I preach about joining the community, then want the community to come to me.

So here is my idea. From now until Monday, I leave 100 comments on 100 blogs. I can't control whether or not anyone comments on MY blog, but I can definitely control whether or not *I* comment on any other blogs. I checked my Bloglines feeds and I've got around 60-65 blogs on there now. Add in another 35-40, and that gets me up to 100.

So in the spirit of walking the walk, I'm going to spend quite a bit of time out in the community today and through the weekend. You might not see me here, but you'll probably see me on your blog. Who knows, maybe I'll get a few new commenters here, or better yet, maybe some of you will decide to join in on the fun and go on your own commenting spree.

Poe said it best: "Hey everyone when I walk the walk, I gotta back it all up, can I talk the talk?"

The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs - Week 27

Here's the standings for Week 27:

1 - Seth's Blog - 5,319 (LW - 1)(+74)
2 - Duct Tape Marketing - 17,587 (LW - 2)(+404)
3 - Creating Passionate Users - 18,289 (LW - 3)(-26)
4 - Gaping Void - 19,078 (LW - 4)(+140)
5 - Marketing Shift - 32,886 (LW - 5)(+972)
6 - Daily Fix - 39,215 (LW - 6)(-338)
7 - Coolzor - 54,369 (LW - 7)(+3,376)
8 - HorsePigCow - 68,723 (LW - 8)(-415)
9 - The Viral Garden - 77,961 (LW - 10)(+329)
10 - Church of the Customer - 80,242 (LW - 9)(-7,203)
11 - Logic + Emotion - 95,005 (LW - 14)(+5,332)
12 - New School of Network Marketing - 97,906 (LW - 11)(-169)
13 - Emergence Marketing - 99,369 (LW - 13)(-871)
14 - Converstations - 99,899 (LW - 15)(+3,780)
15 - Brand Autopsy - 102,748 (LW - 12)(-4,618)
16 - What's Next - 110,828 (LW - 16)(-3,842)
17 - Experience Curve - 116,945 (LW - 17)(-6,481)
18 - Jaffe Juice - 133,411 (LW - 18)(+9,688)
19 - Marketing Nirvana - 173,540 (LW - 19)(-20,262)
20 - Pro Hip-Hip - Hip-Hop Marketing - 196,186 (LW- 21)(+11,051)
21 - Diva Marketing - 208,923 (LW - 20)(-2,446)
22 - Brains on Fire - 210,076 (LW - 22)(+4,261)
23 - Spare Change - 220,865 (LW - 23)(+2,065)
24 - Beyond Madison Avenue - 232,398 (LW - 25)(+16,209)
25 - Marketallica - 258,962 (LW - 24)(-15,959)


Duct Tape Marketing continues to quietly inch upward. John still is in with the same pack as Gaping Void and CPU, but DTM is looking pretty good right now. Also, GV stays at #4 again this week after spending the last few months at #2. Other than this blog and Church of the Customer swapping places, the Top 10 stayed intact.

L+E has a nice bump up 3 spots to #11, Converstations also has a nice move as both also crack Alexa's Top 100,000.

Jaffe Juice has another nice week as Joe has started a nice run. Pro Hip Hop and Brains on Fire are up as well. Spare Change continues a nice winning streak, being up every week since joining the Top 25. BMA has a nice jump as well, which I'll attribute to the 'Critical Haw' affect.

Next update is next Wednesday.

Coke decides they are ready to join the Mentos geyser party

Well it seems that Coke finally likes the Mentos-Diet Coke geyser videos, now that they've developed a model to make money off them.

After first saying that they didn't approve of their customers enjoying their product, Coke has now switched gears and is embracing the geyser video movement. Of course by now no one gives a damned about the videos anymore, but that's beside the point.

The point is WHY does Coke suddenly now like the idea? Because they have found a way to monetize the videos, of course! Coke has created a new 'Poetry in Motion' contest and website which will let users upload crazy videos of them doing crazy things with all sorts of items.

Crazy man!

Kevin Nalty says kudos "to Coke for demonstrating adaptive marketing. The best kind."

I say the BEST kind of adaptive marketing that Coke could engage in, is letting their customers take control of their brand, instead of trying to stop them until they can find a way to make money off them. As Virginia says "Is someone trying to hijack your marketing? Are you fighting back or sending them a thank you note?"

Joe takes his crayons and goes home to Second Life

Congrats to Joe Jaffe, Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, and CC Chapman for the forming of their 'new marketing' company, crayon. The company will 'officially' launch on their own island in Second Life on Thursday, the island shares the name of their site, Crayonville.

Jaffe explains the genesis of the company:

crayon is the realization of almost 5 years of evangelism, passion and thought leadership designed around the central premise that the world has changed; the consumer has changed; but marketing has not. Judging by the general consensus and response to my book, together with countless conversations with senior marketers, not to mention the level of discourse on blogs like yours, it became readily apparent that now was the time to scale and staff up to accommodate the acute lack of clarity and mass confusion regarding what to do next…

Enter crayon…

In short, crayon is a shape-shifter; a mash-up; a company that integrates the best of the consulting, agency, advisory, thought leadership and education worlds. crayon’s goal is to help our clients:

• Amplify, extend and enhance relevance, experience and value through bold, alternative and non-traditional approaches

• Join the conversation

• Create disproportionate positive business impact

Think of it as the marketing services embodiment of “Life after the 30-second spot” and then some.

Then it should be a smashing success. Congrats to Joe and the gang, and I wish them all the best. Joe does a lot of 'behind-the-scenes' work to help other bloggers that most don't know about, and he and Shel, Neville and CC deserve all the success I am sure they are going to enjoy as they use new marketing to prove new marketing.

Read no blogs...like no blogs

DA had an interesting post that I had to forego commenting on his blog about, and instead expand into a post here.

The post focuses on this study/report by the Wharton School of Business. Basically it's just several faculty members giving their opinions on blogs. As expected, the instructors that read and write their own blogs, love them. What is suprising, is that the members that see no value in blogs, are the ones that don't read them.

"Blogs are the latest forum for people who have nothing to say that others actually care about," states Wharton marketing professor Xavier Dreze. The mode of a distribution, explains Dreze, "is its highest point. What this means is that there are more blogs with 0 subscriptions than blogs with one subscription or two or three or four. There is a reason why the modal number of subscriptions to a blog is 0."

He doesn't read blogs because "I don't see the point. It's a bunch of people writing their opinions, and those people have no credibility. The information content is very low."

Here's another gem:

Management professor Saikat Chaudhuri is also skeptical of blogs. "I actually don't read any blogs because I am still trying to demystify their value," he says, adding that he thinks their relevance "lies in receiving informed opinion by experts on a topic as a reader, developing one's reputation for such expertise as a contributor, and providing a focused discussion forum in general. However, there are many such blogs to choose from, so I find it difficult to distinguish between genuinely useful ones and those merely exchanging or relating social experiences."

Shockingly, they are both completely wrong. You can't measure the value of blogs on the content published. The reason why blogs are so important, is because they give everyone a voice. And perhaps more importantly, they let everyone find their voice.

Perfect example: In graduate school, I was exposed to several branding and marketing authors by my instructors, my favorites were probably Al and Laura Ries. The instructors brought their books to my attention, but thanks to blogging, I was able to communicate directly with Laura through her blog. I've gone from reading the books of top marketing authors, to reading and communicating with top marketing bloggers.

Communication is the difference. My voice can communicate with your voice.

Not every blog is a treasure-chest of wonderful content. Likewise, not every book is a great read. Would these instructors tell their students to stop reading books, simply because some are bad? Would they encourage their students to read The Origin of Brands, but to avoid reading and commenting on Laura's The Origin of Brands blog?

DA adds this:

Xavier is certainly entitled to his opinion. And there is of course a lot of trash out there in general—not limited to blogs. But I have to say, this reinforces the stereotype that places of academia can become insulated. Get out there people! Go out in the real world and see things from different perspectives. Lots of professionals are out there blogging. People who PRACTICE what they do for a living. If we can't learn from them—who can we learn from?

Exactly. Who should I listen to, the marketing blogger that is PASSIONATE about his profession, or the marketing instructor that slams blogs, and admits that he's never read them?

Blogs are an incredible empowerment tool. Personally I would steer clear of anyone that tried to teach young and impressionable minds that they shouldn't be empowered to find their own voice, and to hear the voices of others.

The Google-YouTube deal: Here's what you missed

The $1.65 billion price-tag that Google paid for YouTube grabbed all the headlines, but there's a very big underlying story that's just now coming out. The New York Times reported today that just prior to the deal being struck with Google, Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, Sony and Bertelsmann’s jointly owned Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and the Warner Music Group, all agreed to take stakes in YouTube. No doubt this was a move to appease the labels that had strongly hinted that they were considering lawsuits against YouTube for the video-sharing site making copyrighted material available. And I'm sure that this was a strong factor in whether or not Google agreed to purchase YouTube.

But here's the potentially huge problem: An additional element of the deal with the labels involves YouTube upgrading their existing technology to identify copyrighted material that users have uploaded to the site without permission.

Exactly.

I think we all know where this is likely headed, YouTube gives the information that it collects to the music labels, and soon every parent in America whose child has uploaded a music video to YouTube, has a letter in their mailbox threatening legal action against the family, which the label will agree to drop if the unknowing parent can pony up $10,000. Does anyone really think this isn't the road the RIAA and the labels are headed down?

Yes, apparently we still have to say outloud that 'Suing your own customers is bad for business'.

So many great books...

I've been lucky enough to have several marketing authors/bloggers send me books lately to review. Unfortunately, I really haven't had time yet to give them the attention they deserve.

But I'm going to have to move Andy Sernovitz's 'Word of Mouth Marketing' book to the top of my list. Andy did one thing that I didn't like, he didn't personally mention me as the other books I've received did, I just received a 'form letter' greeting. I'm big on personalization, but I'm willing to overlook it in this case, because when I opened the book for Andy's book, I discovered that he had also sent me a free bag of Dale and Thomas popcorn!

Great move by Andy as it was completely unexpected, and now he's gotten me talking about him and his book before I even start reading it. And the Dale and Thomas popcorn was delicious, whereas I'd never heard of the company before this.

As Andy says in his book, 'Do something worth talking about!' So far so good. I'll be reviewing Word of Mouth Marketing soon, as well as the other books I've received lately (promise!). And Ben and Jackie if you guys want to send me a copy of your upcoming book Citizen Marketers to review (before I can buy it), just let me know ;)

Don't forget the 'community' in community-empowerment

'Create our ads/product' promotions are just as popular as ever. While in the sense of getting customers involved in the marketing process, this is a good step, but also a small one. The company ultimately benefits far more from these type of initiatives than the community does. The company throws a few prizes at the winners, and in the end gets their ad/product created at a fraction of the price they would have paid, and usually have a far superior finished product.

Eventually, the community will begin to get bored with these types of promotions, and realize they are simply doing the hard work for the companies. That's why the smart companies NOW are the ones that are shifting the balance toward the community, and giving their customers something out of the deal. The 'create our ad for us' promotion doesn't empower the community, it empowers the company.

I recently blogged on BMA about a new promotion that The Barenaked Ladies have started. They are letting fans remix 6 of their songs completely by letting fans purchase the 'pro files' to each track, which lets them completely re-do the song. The band has set up a site where fans can submit their remixes, and the winner for each track will be packaged together as a special BNL EP that will be sold with the proceeds going to charities. That's a step in the right direction, but companies can still do more.

I've received 3 emails just this month from companies wanting advice on how to embrace and build their communities. My advice is always this: Build your campaign/movement around their passions, not yours.

Empower your community, and they'll happily return the favor.


Pic via Flickr user eugene

The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs - Week 26

Here's the standings for Week 26:

1 - Seth's Blog - 5,393 (LW - 1)(-83)
2 - Duct Tape Marketing - 17,991 (LW - 2)(+81)
3 - Creating Passionate Users - 18,263 (LW - 3)(+277)
4 - Gaping Void - 19,218 (LW - 4)(-524)
5 - Marketing Shift - 33,858 (LW - 5)(+785)
6 - Daily Fix - 38,877 (LW - 6)(+3,151)
7 - Coolzor - 57,745 (LW - 7)(-4,795)
8 - HorsePigCow - 68,308 (LW - 8)(-2,170)
9 - Church of the Customer - 73,039 (LW - 9)(-4,349)
10 - The Viral Garden - 78,290 (LW - 10)(+681)
11 - New School of Network Marketing - 97,737 (LW - 11)(-3,297)
12 - Brand Autopsy - 98,130 (LW - 12)(+152)
13 - Emergence Marketing - 98,498 (LW - 14)(+1,666)
14 - Logic + Emotion - 100,337 (LW - 15)(+6,735)
15 - Converstations - 103,679 (LW - 16)(+4,405)
16 - What's Next - 106,986 (LW - 13)(-8,292)
17 - Experience Curve - 110,464 (LW - 17)(+47)
18 - Jaffe Juice - 143,099 (LW - 19)(+3,078)
19 - Marketing Nirvana - 153,278 (LW - 18)(-11,426)
20 - Diva Marketing - 206,477 (LW - 20)(-16,990)
21 - Pro Hip-Hip - Hip-Hop Marketing - 207,237 (LW- 21)(-1,019)
22 - Brains on Fire - 214,337 (LW - 22)(+3,566)
23 - Spare Change - 222,930 (LW - 24)(+14,291)
24 - Marketallica - 243,003 (LW - 23)(-13,293)
25 - Beyond Madison Avenue - 248,607 (LW - 25)(-210)



Marketing Shift and Daily Fix continue to march upward, while the Top 4 continues to tread water. DF is starting to gain on MS, but what's going to be interesting to see is if either blog can make a run at the Top 4, which has pretty much been set in stone from Day One. HorsePigCow continues to slide, but yet again neither this blog nor Church of the Customer can take advantage of it.

Look at how closely grouped #11-#17 is. Less than 13,000 points seperates 7 blogs. Past that, Spare Change has another nice week and looks to be making a run at the Top 20. No new blogs this week and BMA hangs onto the last spot barely.

Next update is next Wednesday.

Congrats to DA

David Armano's "Blog's Eye View" series of presentations are over in NYC, and it looks like they were the smashing success we knew they'd be. Here's his recap of Day One, and here's Day Two.

It's been really great to see L+E take off. It was completely organic. He's shared his knowledge with his readers, and has actively become a participant in their communities. His smartitude and his willingness to reach out to other bloggers in turn drew us into L+E. DA creates some amazing visuals as we all know, but his humbleness and love of being part of the blogging community has been just as instrumental in his quick rise to blogging fame.

David is the perfect case study of how if you have passion for your work, and your community, that your blog can take off like a rocket. Technorati puts L+E at around the 6,500th most popular blog on the internet. That's after EIGHT months people.

Congrats David, and I mean this as a compliment, but you are truly an A-Lister!

PS I stole his pics from the presentations, the top one is Max Kalehoff, CK, Jaffe, DA, and Greg Verdino. The second one is Ann 'sis' Handley, DA, and Maura Welch from The Boston Globe's blog Business Filter.

Additionally, here's David's presentation.

Double PS: Thanks to C(space)K for telling me I had bungled the spelling of Max's name. Sorry,
Mark

The Viral Garden's interview with Nettwerk's Terry McBride

If you enjoy music, if you have an interest in marketing, then you need to get to know Terry McBride. That's because much of what you'll see in the next few years in music distribution and marketing, is likely going to come from the principles that Terry is applying to the management of his artists at Nettwerk Music Group now. Artists such as Sarah McLachlan, Avril Lavigne, and The Barenaked Ladies.

For decades, major music labels have tried to keep a tight rein over control of how music is distributed, how it is priced, and who gets to keep it. Nettwerk has broken in the opposite direction, giving customers music in literally any form imaginable, giving them cheaper or even free music, and giving artists more control over their music, which in turn gives these artists the ability to sell that music in more forms and for less(see there's a method to the madness).

No one knows for sure what the future of music marketing and distribution will look like, but the odds are good that it will be very similar to the model that Terry is applying to the management of Nettwerk's artists today.


The Viral Garden: You have said repeatedly that we need to view music as a product like water, that nourishes as it is consumed, and that should not be controlled. How does this philosophy apply to the marketing of Nettwerk'™s artists and the distribution of their music?

Terry McBride: Well it varies from artist to artist as each is at a different stage of their careers and some are tied into recording and publishing agreements that limit their creative initiatives due to the labels and publishers wanting control. Those who are free and are able to collapse their copyrights will in turn have the ability to give up the control and realize by doing so that their imaginations take over. I hope through leading different artists down this path such as Barenaked Ladies, The Format, State Radio, Leigh Nash, that others will get excited by what they see. For example Sarah McLachlan has agreed for the first time to release a multi-track to the public so that they can make their own mixes, this was based on how well received the BNL ones went.


TVG: You mentioned The Barenaked Ladies. I've read that Nettwerk took a very unique approach in releasing their new CD, Barenaked Ladies Are Me. If you could, talk about what made the marketing and distribution of this release different from previous releases?

TM: This is all based on a simple principle, put the music where the music fan spends their time and allow them to consume it how they want. Thus with Barenaked Ladies Are Me, we have 29 songs, but over 250 assets when we count up the various versions (studio, acoustic, live, ringtones, multitracks, fan mixes). Then combine them with all the various formats ( Vinyl, CD, USB, 5.1, Digital) and then put them everywhere ( traditional store, All Digital DSP's, Live venues, Band site, Starbucks & so on).


TVG: “ Something I have discovered firsthand, is that Nettwerk makes a point to reach out to bloggers and communicate with them. So far, it seems that most labels are only sending review copies of new CDs to a few '˜tastemaker' blogs, but are there other ways that labels can involve bloggers in the promotional process?

TM: Well, we see bloggers as music fans that love to communicate on a personal level, thus I think they should be treated with better communication than the traditional type of journalist who does it as a paid job. I think down the road bloggers with a great track record will be able to make a decent living from the fact that they can sell the music that they are promoting by using peer to peer economic advances such as what Snocap is fostering.


TVG:“ Many people are saying that podcasting could be the next area of social media to see explosive growth. Do you agree with this, and if podcasting does grow over the next few years, how can music labels leverage this medium as a promotional channel for their artists?

TM: Not sure I agree with that, I am quite sure that those doing podcatsing have the perception that it will. I simply see P2P recommendation within the technology realms of IM, Text and e-mails being a far more immediate and personalized way of exchanging recommendations, opinion and commerce.


TVG: Nettwerk seems to understand the importance of reaching out to and empowering the communities of fans for their artists. Why aren'™t more labels as willing to involve their fans in the marketing process? Is it simply a control issue?

TM: Not sure why they do not, I think its rooted in old ways of doing things and not wanting to lose the control that they enjoy.


TVG: Something that impressed me when I talked to Erin Kinghorn earlier this year, was her saying that you encourage all of Nettwerk's artists to donate their time to charitable causes, to instill a sense of '˜giving back' and being a part of the '˜global community'™. Talk about why you wanted to instill a sense of giving back into the culture at Nettwerk.

TM: It's key to keeping artists in touch with everyday reality and making the world a better place for us all, really quite that simple.


TVG: Finally, I know that Save the Music Fan is something that you are passionate about. Can you explain how Save the Music Fan came to be, and what its goals are?

TM: Save The Music Fan is about stopping the litigation of music fans and simply came about from one of the many law suits. We decided to fund the defense of a fan whose family thought that the RIAA is in the wrong.




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The Viral Garden, MarketingMusic Marketing, Nettwerk



Sarah pic via DesertOfMyDreams.

Fair warning...

If you're a music fan, and interested in how music is and likely will be distributed and marketed in the future, you'll want to check back here on Monday for a special treat. Then you'll want to check out my next post on Daily Fix on Tuesday. Even BMA isn't safe.

Till then, The Garden is yours my friends, enjoy the weekend!

Why aren't you blogging?

My newest best friend online is Flori. Flori contacted me on MySpace after finding Tim's post on DF via a Google search, and reading the comment I left there. That comment led her to follow the link here, where she saw the link to my MySpace page, and contacted me there.

Great example of how connected the online world has become, but I digress...

When we started messaging, of course one of the first questions I asked Flori was if she blogged. She said she didn't, and I was struck by the reasons she gave for not blogging.

She didn't know what to write about, she didn't think she could write well enough, she didn't think she would be witty enough.

And above all else, she didn't think she would have anything interesting to say.

How many of us can say that we didn't have these same concerns before we started blogging? I can't, because I had these EXACT same thoughts about this time last year before I joined BMA. Many bloggers I've talked to can relate similar stories.

But in the end, my only regret about blogging is that I waited so long to get started. I've heard this from many other bloggers as well.

So as I told my new friend Flori, if you aren't blogging, then start right now. It will make you a better writer, it will make you better informed, it will make you a better marketer, and you'll love it. From a purely professional standpoint, blogging literally gives you hand-on experience with viral marketing and social media, two of the hottest areas of marketing right now. There's really no downside to blogging, besides the addiction, of course ;)

I asked Flori if it was ok to relate this story, because I wanted her to hear from the Viral Community and have everyone tell her their experiences with blogging. To Flori and every other visitor that's wondering if they should blog, what do you guys have to say? What advice can you give anyone that's not blogging yet?